MVP voting takes place before the postseason, but the results are not announced until after the World Series. The BBWAA began by polling three writers in each league city in 1938, reducing that number to two per league city in 1961.[3] The BBWAA does not offer a clear-cut definition of what "most valuable" means, instead leaving the judgment to the individual voters.[4]

Hank Greenberg, Stan Musial, Alex Rodriguez, and Robin Yount have won at different positions,[5] while Rodriguez is the only player who has won the award with two different teams at two different positions.[7]Barry Bonds has won the most often (seven times) and the most consecutively (2001–04).[8]Jimmie Foxx was the first player to win multiple times;[8] 9 players have won three times, and 19 have won twice.[9]Frank Robinson is the only player to win the award in both the American and National Leagues.

In recent decades, pitchers have rarely won the award. When Justin Verlander won the AL award in 2011, he became the first pitcher in either league to be named the MVP since Dennis Eckersley in 1992. Verlander also became the first starting pitcher to win this award since Roger Clemens had accomplished the feat in 1986.[11] The National League went even longer without an MVP award to a pitcher—after Bob Gibson won in 1968, no pitcher in that league was named MVP until Kershaw in 2014.[12]

The following season, Chalmers created the Chalmers Award. A committee of baseball writers were to convene after the season to determine the "most important and useful player to the club and to the league". Since the award was not as effective at advertising as Chalmers had hoped, it was discontinued after 1914.[3]

League Awards (1922–1929)[edit]

Babe Ruth was ineligible for the award in his famous 1927 season by the rules of the American League award because he had previously won in 1923.

In 1922 the American League created a new award to honor "the baseball player who is of the greatest all-around service to his club".[19] Winners, voted on by a committee of eight baseball writers chaired by James Crusinberry,[20] received a bronze medal and a cash prize.[21] Voters were required to select one player from each team and player-coaches and prior award winners were ineligible. These flaws resulted in the award's being dropped after 1928. The National League award, without these restrictions, lasted from 1924 to 1929.[3]

Baseball Writers' Association of America's Most Valuable Player (1931–present)[edit]

The BBWAA first awarded the modern MVP after the 1931 season, adopting the format the National League used to distribute its league award. One writer in each city with a team filled out a ten-place ballot, with ten points for the recipient of a first-place vote, nine for a second-place vote, and so on. In 1938, the BBWAA raised the number of voters to three per city and gave 14 points for a first-place vote. The only significant change since then occurred in 1961, when the number of voters was reduced to two per league city.[3]